Thy Kingdom Come
by wrath
Summary: Third impact came and went. Slowly, things returned to the way they were but then things became all too familiar. Having renounced ascencion once, is there still any hope of salvation for the reminents of humanity or is this the price of hubiris?
1. On the first day

Thy Kingdom Come

Prolouge - On the first day

Makoto opened his eyes to find the deep purple heavens staring right back at him. For a moment, the man could do nothing but numbly blink at the sparsely spread, winking stars that dotted his seemingly endless view…

And then the man sat bolt upright, shattering the moment as his spine seemingly snapped in two tearing himself up from the sand the second the revelation hit home.

He was alone. Utterly and completely alone. It wasn't in the sense that he was the only soul to be seen on the bank of white sand that ran for miles. Nor was it that his guttery gasp was the only sound to puncture the silence asides from the gentle hiss of the now blood red sea as it licked the beach. No, it was something far, far deeper than that. The man clutched at his chest, doubling over as he fought against the emptiness that seemed to be eating him from the inside out like some kind of ravenous worm. The only thing his raving brain could possibly compare it to was like waking up to find someone had just emptied a shot gun cartage into his thorax at a mercilessly point blank range. Not that that had happened to him recently, but a little bit of imagination can work wonders.

"Oh… oh god." He eventually managed to choke, his digging fingers hardly believing that they where touching something solid rather than some thin, hollow, empty husk. Eventually, when his heart had stopped hammering fit to knock a hole through his rib cage, the man shakily got to his feet and looked around but for what, he didn't know. The skeletal remains of Tokyo-3 certainly didn't offer any answers as they loomed over the tiny figure, looking out over the crimson sea like the ghost town it was.

8 8 8

Makoto walked along the beach. It sounded picturesque but the man felt his stomach quail every time the lapping water ran up to greet him. The colour sent a chill down his spine but still, it provided a distraction for his frayed brain as it tripped over the question of what the fuck had just happened. Sure, the technician could pick apart even the most sophisticated computer programs thrown at him but even the ones he's have to spend a few days wrinkling his brow over looked like a particularly tame piece of cake in comparison to what just happened. If only there was someone…

The man stopped in his tracks, fixing his glasses on the bridge of his nose. There was something further up the track of sand, breaking the monotonous pale strip if only for a moment. Makoto squinted, but the tension biding his face quickly broke and he found himself resuming his walk at a gallop.

8 8 8

"Maya!"

Maya Ibuki flinched at the sound of her name. Slowly, she peeled her eyes away from the achers of red water that ran off into the distance to meet the dark horizon and looked to the source of the noise. There was Makoto, hands on his knees as he gulped at the air. You would have though the man had just sailed past the finishing line of the marathon but then, being trapped in a job where the only work out you get is mashing fingers against a keyboard doesn't exactly turn you into the pinnacle of physical fitness.

"Thank god," The man gasped like some fish hulled fresh out of water. "I…was starting to… think that I… was the only one… here." He collapsed on the sand next to her in a heap, still chasing after his breath.

"Makoto?" the dull sound of his name in his ears made him stop. He glanced at the girl who was staring blankly back at him. "It is you, right? Just you?"

"Yeah… just me."

Silence, save for his raged breath and the sigh of the water. Makoto shifted uneasily. From the moment he'd found himself lying on the sand half a mile away he'd wanted nothing more than to stumble across someone else in this alien landscape, hell, he'd been _starving _for human contact, but there was something about Maya's question that made him think that he was going to have to face the very thing he'd been hoping to find a distraction from.

"What happened to us?"

And there it was.

Makoto bit his lip. Dodging the eyes of his co-worker, he suddenly became fixated with the trench he was scoring in the sand with his fingernail. He didn't want think about it, hell, he couldn't even begin to understand it, even if he were given a millennium to ponder the question. Being a man of facts and figures, that simply terrified him.

"I don't know." He stated, hoping that would be the end of things and they could move briskly on. Alas, that wasn't to be as Maya opened her mouth, posting yet another question that made him want to do nothing more than burry his head in the sand.

"What's the last thing you remember?" She glanced at him. The blank slate that was her face was beginning to be chipped away at with something that looked scarily like desperation.

"I…" He was going to dance around her query but that look she was giving him froze his tongue and before he could rein it in, it was off on a more truthful path. "I though we was going to die. The UN's troops had us pinned down in the command centre and were slaughtering everyone, then Lilth appeared and everything went…" He paused, searching for a word that could possibly encompass the chaos that had erupted as that blanched entity had ascended through the base. "…crazy…"

Maya silently shuddered next to him as he continued, staring off, eyes searching for the point where the sky crashed into the sea and the two bodied became one. "But it was weird. Even with that all going on, at the very end I was…so happy." He trailed off again. It didn't even begin to describe the feeling that had rushed through him when the first child has suddenly popped up on his consol as it flashed and beeped, helpfully informing him that the world was ending and there was fuck all he could do about it. At first he though his mind had snapped, and his faith in his sanity was hardly restored when the albino melted into the form of Major Katsuragi but suddenly, it didn't matter if he was crazy or not. No, she'd been the one person in the whole world he'd wanted to be there at that moment and there she was. Right in front of him.

And then she was kissing him.

It was like all that passion and hunger that hade been gnawing away at him for months on end had been transplanted into the object of his unknowing affection. He couldn't breath. He couldn't think or question how reality and fantasy had converged into something so wonderful. Most of all though, he couldn't stay afloat the torrent of sheer ecstasy that had swept him away as Misato pressed into him. The man lost himself to the memory, reliving the experience. He didn't notice the woman next to him clench her eyes shut, hugging her knees that little bit tighter.

"And then I just stopped."

The two sat in silence on the sand, letting the sound of swash and back wash have full reign over the beach. Makoto knew that he was skimping out on details but no words could truly describe what happened next. Yes, he had stopped, but something else had started. Something huge and immense that had assimilated him, breaking him down and building him into something new. Death and Rebirth.

But he'd come back.

Mokato pulled himself out of the deep pool of meditation he'd found himself slipping into, rising to his feet and picking up his march once again mumbling something about them getting moving. The motion dragged Ibiki free from her own fog of though and the woman scurried to her feet.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"We can't just stay here. Besides, what if there are other people out there? We need to find them…" Ever since he'd opened his eyes and found himself strewn across the sand, there'd been the yammering compulsion to find someone… anyone. Was this crusade of his just some pathetic attempt to fill the void that was now yawning within him? Whatever the reason, Maya must have shared it on some level for the girl bucked up a little the moment she processed the words. With a nod, she fell in tow and the two rambled off, their shoes stamping the damp sand, leaving mementos to their existence.

8 8 8

"-should be ok, you know. For once it doesn't look like there's too much structural damage which, knowing this place, is a-"

"Mokato…"

"What?" The man turned from his inspection of the entity of glass, steel and concrete that was the city he'd called home.

"Is that?" The girl at his side asked, pointing at some anomaly in the landscape but before he had a chance to restore his glasses to their rightful place on the bridge of his nose, Maya had seemingly confirmed some terrible truth to herself and was sprinting off, leaving nothing for her comrade asides from the oh so informative revelation "oh god it is" and a trail of dusty sand. By the time he'd finally caught up with her, she was already huddled over something, staring at it with wide eyes while a hand cupped her mouth.

"Maya, what the hell-" But that was as far as he got as his eyes took in the sight before him. There on the sand before him lay the prostrate form of the second child, Asuka Langley Soryu.

The last time he'd seen her, the girl had been ablaze with fury and pride, revealing in what she did best (i.e smacking the living crap out of something). It was chilling to think that the listless ghost boring holes into the sky with eyes that seemed utterly oblivious to the two bridge technicians was the same person, but that wasn't the only reason Makoto felt his stomach turn to water at the discovery.

"Asuka? Asuka, can you hear me?" The older woman tried, feverishly checking for a pulse. No answer came the loud reply but Ibuki seemed to find what she was looking for. Realising that Sorhy was going to be as responsive as a particularly mute piece of granite, she sat back on her haunches. "She's alive but how... how is this even possible?" Maya choked from behind her hand, goggling at the discovery. "The Eva series… for god's sake, we watched them tear her apart." Her eyes lingered on the bandages that laced the side of Asuka's head and arm. The images from the video feed played over and over again in the privacy of her own skull, lingering on the image of the lances burying themselves into the red behemoth that was Unit 02. it was enough to make her shut her eyes, but of course, that did nothing to exorcise the visions. "She couldn't have survived that, could she?"

"Right now, I wouldn't be surprised if we bumped into Father Christmas himself given everything that's happened" Makoto offered dryly, a comment that earned him a glare from Maya. He didn't care if it was in bad taste, this was all too surreal.

The trio lingered there for awhile trying to pull together a plan of action. The catatonic pilot didn't really get a say in this debate (which, Makoto noted, was a change from usual) and eventually it was decided they'd venture into the city and see what was what. Perhaps they would have come to a different conclusion if, in their bewildered state they'd noticed a set of unclaimed foot prints wondering away from the spot they'd stumbled into Asuka.

A/N- it's been a good long while since i've even though about this site but the other day the reading bug bit and i've been wanting to do another HUGE project for yonks. hopefully, this will be it. it's been knocking about my head for ages along with a bunch of other junk and i really needed to do some internal, unseasonal spring cleaning.

ttfn!


	2. Pandora's Box

Chapter 01:

Pandora's Box

For the first time in half a year, the lights in NERV flicked on. Light splashed against walls, illuminating the hallways of humanity's last vanguard against the latest plague set upon them, one that had arrived in a form far more bizarre or deadly than locus or frogs.

The labyrinth was silent, save for the incessant, tuneless hum of electricity now surging through cables and machines that had long given up the ghost of hope that they would ever taste that sweet, vitalising juice again. This soulless tone didn't have total domination over the abandoned base however; one other noise could be heard echoing down the faceless passageways provided you were in the right place at the right time. Given the immense size of the underground bastion, it would be oh so easy to miss the insignificant footfall but to former Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, the sound of his shoes clacking against the floor was almost deafening in the near perfect quiet as he methodically progressed through the tangle of walkways. The journey to the heart of the Geo-Front was taking far longer than normal on account of the mess SEELE's dogs of war had made of the place (though to be fair, choking the base with bakelite was hardly doing his e.t.a. any favours either). Thus, the steel haired man found himself with plenty of time on his hands. Unfortunately, he found himself unable to do anything useful with it asides ponder what was going to come of the meeting that was scheduled to take place here today.

Rounding the nth corner, the commander found himself setting down yet another facless corridor, the pale walls glaring at the man who'd disturb their slumber.

'_They're saturat__ed with the most confidential secrets in the world.' _He wordlessly observed. He didn't feel equal to the void of noise to try and fill it, let alone break it with his own rhetoric. _'If walls could talk…' _But fortunately no one was going to have to try and coaxes words from the dumb layers of steel, not when they had NERV's second of command to hand. Fuyutsuki found his features tightly locked in a particularly grim formation. It took a lot for the man's feathers to ruffle (try the impending apocalypse) but back then he'd had very little sway in the face of a series of cataclysmic events that had been carefully planned by a master puppeteer. Of course, none of that had sat particularly well with his conscience but now the strings had been sliced to ribbons, and Fuyutsuki found himself blind and lost in a whole new, deeper shade of dark.

8 8 8

"Ah, Sub- Commander!" Fuyutsuki looked up as he shut the door to the room where mankind's fate had been decided. The grand desk still stood where he remembered it, solid in the gloom, however, there was some strange new shape sat behind it.

"Mr. President." He gave the man a curt bow, subtlety examining him from behind the cover of his eyebrows. "Congratulations on your victory."

"Ha, yes. Though given the circumstances, it couldn't have really gone any other way…"

The nation's leader drawled off, sinking back into the deep chair containing him. Fuyutsuki felt a muscle in his cheek jump. It was amazing that no one in the senate had been smothered to death by this creature's ego- Kozo was certainly more than aware of it pressing into him in an attempt to obliterate the older man as he took up its precious space. As much as he hated to admit it though, the man had a point. Long before the UN had even announced that it was going to stop playing handmaid to this timid, new world and hand power back to individual governments, Yoshiyiki Hirano had ensured he was the guy Tom, Dick, Harry and the rest of the collective people of Japan turned to in their time of need (which, given the fact they were still reeling from quite possibly the biggest thing to happen to humanity since a celestial ball of space debris touched down in Mexico and conveniently whipped out all those pesky dinosaurs, was pretty much twenty four- seven). When the time came to vote, they may as well have got down on their knees and begged the man to take up the mantle of leading the nation.

"You had an impressive manifesto." Not to mention the slimy charisma that could ooze its way through the defences of even those with wills of iron. He could probably talk the entire nation into believing they'd evolved from cockatiels or some other equally ridiculous notion if the mood took him.

"Yes, I did make quite a few promises, didn't I? Thing is, they're proving rather hard to follow up… after all, how can I ensure our economy is stable when everyone else is so wrapped up in its own problems that international trade, trade that our country desperately needs to prevail, has come to all but a stand still?" The president peered at the older man from over the steeple of fingers his digits had smoothly winded into. "Tell me that, Sub-Commander?"

"I don't know." The words snapped off his tongue. Fuyutsuki did not like the way this conversation was going. "And who am I to advise you? I'm nothing more than the second in command of a dissolved military organization. Handling global affairs is hardly my area-"

"Who said NERV was disbanded?" The words were soft as velvet, yet somehow they managed to slice through his voice, cutting it short. The silence dragged its heels but for a bear few moments, Fuyutsuki found himself unable to hurry it out of the room. The debris of his half finished sentence jarred in his throat like a cluster of fish bones. He'd suspected something like this was going to happen, but so soon?

"What would be the point?" He began, his voice slowly picking up momentum. "The angels are gone and, as you said, our economy is in a sad state. It hardly needs the costs required to power this redundant front alone leeching off it."

"The angles are gone?" Something tugged at Yoshiyiki eyebrows, propping them up in arches of mock surprise. "Do we know that for sure? The people of this city certainly don't share your confidence. On top of everything else they've gone through, they don't need to be kept up at night worrying that some 90 foot monster's going to come careering though their apartment unheeded… unless, of course, there's something you want to tell them…" The man levelled his eyes at Fuyutsuki, smirking. "Oh, don't think I'm totally ignorant about the little games you and Ikari got up to down here. How do you think the world would react if it were to hear you and SEELE though it would be fun to play god?"

The words echoed through the chamber, relaying again and again in the older man's ears. His gaze dipped momentarily and he couldn't meet that of the shadow on the other side of the desk, armed with eyes that glinted with all the warmth of a steel toothed bear-trap. Fuyutsuki found himself wishing that the desk separating the two men would be replaced by something that spanned a tad wider like, say, the Grand Canyon. Alas, the tectonic plates felt that it would be too much effort to shift and re-rout the land mark at that very moment, leaving Fuyutsuki to listen to the nation's leader croon away in a voice that summoned the image of a kid slowly pulling off some hapless insect's legs one by one, smiling all the while.

"Seeing how no one's heard from either your boss or his superiors that would mean the responsibility falls to you, _commander_."

"Don't think I don't regret what they tried to do." Kozo's face, weathered by age, twisted. "The fact we're even standing here having this conversation is proof we made an infallible mistake, but if you think you can blackmail me into doing something so unnecessary and reckless then you're wrong. This place should do nothing more than act as a reminder of our greatest folly."

The grin flashing at him refreshed itself, melting into something a little warmer and Hirano lent forwards over the desk.

"Then how about you redeem yourself and let us use NERV for its most basic intention."

"And that is?"

"To save the world, of course." Fuyutsuki's eyes were all but swallowed up as they narrowed into a network of sharply carved wrinkle but the President carried on, undeterred by the dubious look he was now on the receiving end of. "This place is a technological gold-mine. The MAGI system, the evangelion, from what I understand of them, they are the pinnacle of human achievement. Our international neighbours have been watching our humble islands with peeled eyes ever since they got wind of this place's existence. Needless to say, in such desperate times, this gives us quite the bargaining chip."

All the moisture in Fuyutsuki's mouth seemingly evaporated, leaving his tongue as arid as the barren Sahara. Indeed, it wielded as paltry crop of words as you'd get from the sand.

"You- you're proposing we sell our information and give each country the means to potentially end the world!?"

"This place is up to its neck in secrets," The crocodile smile gave way, revealing the true nature of the beast. "But you people didn't think for one moment about the hundreds of ways in which your knowledge could be used to better the human race asides from your crazy dooms-day plot." He drew a breath, reeling in his spiking tone. "Of course, we aren't going to give them everything. No, that would require the understanding of a whole host of ugly facts that I don't care to expose them to… and you needn't lose any sleep over a fourth impact happening without you knowing each and every detail inside out."

"And why not?" the man had to keep his voice from devolving into a feral growl. If Fuyutsuki weren't the monolith of retentive, emotional control he was, he probably would have screamed at the man, informing him that he'd had very little to do with orchestrating events, punctuating each word with a thunk as he slammed the ignorant fool's head into the desk.

"I'm placing you in command." There were no cries of thanks or gratitude as a familiar silence gushed to fill the absence of sound, something Hirano dully noted. "Don't think you're the only one I can turn to. I'd have no problem finding a replacement that'd happily fall into line."

"Then why don't you and save yourself the bother of having to deal with a stubborn, old man like myself?" The president shot Kozo a forlorn look as he leaned back into his seat, sighing as if the older man had asked him to enlighten him as to why the sky was a particular shade of blue.

"Because you may be the one man left in the world who comes close to understanding all this and I, for one, believe you lack the hubris of your former colleagues or the experience of mine to try anything stupid." Yoshiyiki drew a breath, watching for the reaction as he lay his trump card down on the table. "Think about it commander, think of all the good we could do..."

888

The only thing Kozo Fuyutsuki could think about as he roamed the empty corridors of NERV for the second time that day was how easily he'd been played. Shockingly, he hadn't turned down the offer; how could he knowing some wet eared puppy would be handed the planet's finest double edge sword to play with unless he took responsibility for all the ugly consequences that were bound to come. Of course, it was all inevitable, that was something Hirano had been sure to drill into him time and time again as he stood there, being barraged into submission by a ever-ending volley of words. Even if NERV was left to rot and become nothing more than a bad memory, there were people out there who didn't share Fuyutsuki's willingness to forget it all. What if all that classified information slipped into the wrong hands? Things were still in a state that could be described as chaotic at best so who could say if anyone would really notice a couple of computer files or technicians disappearing into the ether.

At least this way with Kozo at the helm, there may be some semblance of control.

The idiot had painted a pretty picture about all the benefits of this shared technology. It had been a nauseating experience, listening to him harp on as if he were some form of saint; selflessly striving away to deliver mankind from this new Dark Age but the newly installed commander could see right through the speeches and sermons. Indeed, the cracks were clearly visible in the façade as it struggled to contain his ravenous ambition. What did he hope to gain? Power? A noble peace prize? A place in the hearts of future generations as the man who saved the world? Fuyutsuki didn't know and, quite frankly, he didn't give a damn either. All he knew was that Hirano's dreams for a return of the golden age of man flaked and paled in comparison with the visions seen by the previous owner of the chair the president had been so smugly sat in during their little tet-de-tet. Gendo Ikari had been inspired by something great and terrible while Yoshiyiki was nothing more than yet another Pandora, tantalised by the lush voices within promising power beyond his wildest visions if he unleashed the things lurking within NERV.

'_Think about the good we could do.'_

The false words pealed in his ears, but Fuyutsuki could only think of the demons that would be unleashed if Pandora fell victim to her nagging temptation and tried to peek in the box once more.

AN: my, my, what an exciting instalment. This is probably going to take another chapter to go anywhere even vaguely riveting but let's see what happens. as I said at the end of the last chapter, I came up with the basic premise for this eeeeeeeeeeeeeons ago. Unfortunately, that didn't include a fantastically plausible reason for why the events of EOE are happily being negated. Gah. If I don't get another chapter of this up before the 25th, a merry Christmas to you all.


	3. Impacts

Chapter Two:

Impacts

(Nine moths later)

"You're boring me."

And with that dry statement, Asuka flicked the off switch on the tv remote, plunging the room into silence. For a while, the girl just stared at the blank screen as it slowly faded to black, the soft crackle of static providing subtle background music. Finally coming to the conclusion that warped reflections stretched across the idiot box's glassy front were even more un-engaging that the techno-coloured yarns it spun when it was on, the girl grunted and rolled over from her upside-down vantage point, picking herself up from the sofa. She glanced about the plush hotel room, eyes plundering it for something, ANYTHING to distract her from the state of tedium she'd been trapped in for the last few hour like some livid, buzzing wasp caught in the confides of a jam-jar. Sure, it had been nice of the German organisation to put her up in a five star hotel complete with twenty-four hour room service, but scenic city views and over three-hundred TV channels could only distract the simplest of minds for so long.

Unfortunately for Asuka, the sixteen year-old college graduate was no easily entertained cretin.

The girl sat down. She stood up. She paced the room like some incinerated zoo animal, all pent up in a cage that was all too small and a poor substitute for the jungles it had acquired a taste for roaming. Finally, the red-head collapsed on to her bed with all the grace of a building in the final throws of the demolition process. Misato… this was all her fault. She should have volunteered to come here instead of allowing SICHTEN to get their claws in Asuka and drag the girl half way around the world for some lame press conference-launch party or something.

"_Oh come on, it'll be fun!" Misato's attempt to comfort the fuming German girl was less than a success. It was a good thing that the letter grasped in Asuka's fist was inanimate; anything with a heartbeat would have been reduced to a shrivelled up, black husk by the death glare the sheet of paper was being subjected to. "You know, I'm shocked. If I had a yen for every time you kicked up a fuss about how stupid this country is, I could have retired…oooooh, three years ago. I though you were itching to go back to Germany."_

Ok, so her former guardian had a point but still, to be shuttled here only to be cooped up in a room (sorry, company protocol) was not Asuka's idea of a good time. Nor was being made to hang out with a bunch of old suits who'd lather one another with compliments about what a smart bunch of chaps they all were and undoubtedly probe her with all sorts of questions about NERV. She could already feel the corners of her mouth aching at the prospect of smiling politely and repeating the phrase "ahahhhaha, I'm sorry, but that's classified information." For the bajillionth time.

And then of course, there was the dumb press summit itself. SICHTEN had singled her out from the swarm of people working at NERV to come to the capital and deliver some dumb, pre-written speech about how this techno-rapture sweeping the world was a step in the best possible direction… and that group of candidate included all the insufferably dull drones who knew the MAGI system inside out and probably got their kicks challenging the mammoth consol to games of virtual chess on a regular basis. Misato had spouted some bull along the lines of how having a fellow German up their on the stage would work towards this whole 'united front' angle they were angling for. Pfft, yeah right. Some tight ass in accounting had probably decided that a translator wasn't a frill worth straining their budget over.

SICHTEN had been one of dozens of organizations that had cropped up like the freshly spawned heads of a decapitated hydra ever since NERV had gone global. Super computers and high tech gizmos seemed to be the current vogue, some lame curve ball thrown by the politicians in an attempt to distract the people from all their woes and fears. Thankfully, this expediential growth had yet to turn into a down right arms race. No one had been stupid enough to stand up and announce they were developing their own line of giant robots but Misato for one didn't doubt that there were shady deeds going on behind closed doors. After all, in these fragile times, who wouldn't spy Japan's duo of (redundant) Evangelion with green eyes and feel a little threatened by the hulking monstrosities? No, they'd undoubtedly wait for the next war or international crisis to pull away the covers masking that particular bombshell.

What a shame, Asuka mused as she sighed into her pillow. If it turned out that the Major wasn't being some paranoid conspiracy nut, that might spice things up a little on the third rock from the sun. Before the temptation to alleviate the mind numbing boredom by asphyxiating herself there and then with the 100 cotton head rest became all too tantalising to resist the girl rolled on to her back and made do with boring holes in the ceiling.

When had it all got so dull?

Of course, at the very beginning it had been chaos. They said that roughly a fifth of the world's already dwindling population had simply disappeared that day. The only thing Asuka could remember about it was waking up in a hospital waiting room. Any space that wasn't filled by some blank, wide eyed soul was taken up by the frantic shouts of those in charge desperately trying to keep a hold of the reigns of control. The failing lights over head spasmodically shone down, illuminating the shambles and rendering everything a sickly, fake colour. The girl had only had another moment to drink in these morbid details that swamped her senses like the thick scent of anaesthetics hanging in the buzzing air before there's been an explosion of pain from her left arm and eye. It screamed so loudly that she blacked out instantly, her brain coming to the conclusion that temporary oblivion was far more savoury.

After that, everything merged into one muzzy blur. Asuka was vaguely aware of spending the next handful of days at the house of one of the lieutenants who'd had the bright idea of dragging her to that mad-house of a hospital in the first place (though in retrospect, perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea considering the gory mess she'd been in following her run in with the eva series. God only knew how she managed to walk away from that one in one piece… well, _mostly._ The artificial arm and eye had taken some getting use to but hey, thank god for the marvels of all that shiny new technology). Like most of those around her, she'd idled away the first week or so trying to comprehend what had happened… but then it became a battle to even recall it. Eventually, only a few dregs of recollection remained, and with each passing day, they became all the more unwilling to heed to her mental beck and call.

The second child wasn't the only one to find her memories fading like an over-exposed film left to turn to featureless white in the absolving light. Indeed, it would seem the last synchronised act by the human race was to forget all the abstract details of their unification from the moment they unanimously pledged themselves to instrumentality… but then perhaps this sweeping pandemic was a good thing. After all, letting go of the past made it all the easier to embrace the future and the ever pressing question of what to do with a world of people aimlessly floating from day to day, always coming home only to find that their sanctuary felt like something removed, alien and above all, empty.

The UN (or what was left of it) somehow managed to pull itself together and take on this particularly daunting issue, declaring itself humanity's handmaid in these fragile times. The nursing hand did an admiral job of coaxing its charges back into a routine of reality; the power turned back on, jobs were picked up where they were left and the globe went on spinning on its axis. Within months, a sense of normality softly settled on it like the snow that had been absent from Japan for the last fifteen and a bit years.

Content with a job done to the best of their abilities, the UN let the reins of power go slack and allowed the individual nations free reign over their denizens and for a while, it was good. Sure, things didn't go back to exactly as they were. For instance, the only residents of the Katsuragi abode were two women and a warm water penguin. The words Shinji Ikari joined the massive list the names of those who had not been seen since _that _day. There was no explanation for the phenomenon that tore holes in families and human networks; quite simply, over a million people had simply been wiped clean from the face of the earth, leaving no trace asides from orphaned personal effects and intangible imprints on the memories of those they left behind.

In the case of Asuka Sohry Langly, these remnants only worked to fan the flames of animosity.

To put it simply, she hated him for leaving.

She hated him for running away.

Slowly, the two women had slotted back into old routines... and then things had become all too familiar when one day two men from NERV pitched up on the doorstep. Slowly, life returned to the way it truly had been, complete with plug suits, sync ratio checks and that sanguine smelling LCL, only now it all seemed so pointless. The angels were gone, right? What was the point of checking to see whether or not she was in a state to take Unit 02 for a spin if there was nothing for her to plant a progressive blade in? Who knew, perhaps all those hushed rumours flitting about NERV like flies on fresh carrion had a firm footing after all and the UN _had_ decided to keep a hold of this particularly juicy investment. International politics must be so much easier to solve when you're in a position to point a machine that could quite easily waltz through conventional defences in the direction of any dispute.

The road of ever branching mental digressions suddenly crumbled away from under Asuka's feet, torn asunder by the less than tuneful ballad of the bed side phone.

"Hello?"

"Good evening, Miss Langly!" Asuka pulled a face as the receptionist's chirpy words came tumbling town her ear. "We have a call from Tokyo from a Miss Katsuragi, will you accept? She says it's urgent."

The red head gave her eyes a roll. If this was yet ANOTHER reminder to secure her several crates of Doppelbock the girl was sure she'd go nuclear there and then. Hell, Asuka had been the one to make the suggestion, anything to get the woman to stop poisoning herself with that swill the Japanese failed to pass off as beer.

"Fine." The girl examining her nails with an expression peppered with nothing but mild boredom as she listened to the mechanical clicks of connections being broken and made. It was, however, slapped clean off her face by the frantic shout that erupted from the series of holes dangerously close to her eardrum.

"ASUKA!?" The girl winced, tearing the phone from the side of her head as if she'd accidentally picked up a primed iron instead. Even at arm's length, she could still hear the woman yammering on. "ASUKA, ARE YOU THERE?"

"WHAT!?" She gave as good as she got. The neighbours were probably going to think that there was a homicidal maniac loose in the room next door, having his merry way with the occupant. "Don't you think I liked being able to hear out of both ears!?"

"Turn on the TV! It'll take less time to explain."

"What?!" She failed to catch the curve ball.

" Just turn it on!" The girl scrambled for the remote, for once suppressing the urge to argue with the woman on the other end of the line. From the way she was sounding, that would only be advisable if the young German had a death wish she was dying to grant. "Christ…" It seemed Misato's voice had lost its former furore; that last, guttery word barely made it to Asuka's end of the line.

"What channel?"

"It doesn't matter."

The girl sat back on her haunches, waiting for the television to warm into life as the speakers crackled on. The breath caught in her throat the moment she could make some sense of the barrage of information.

"My god." She stared at the flickering images of the frantic newscaster jabbering away from the other side of his desk as if the four horsemen had just been sited galloping through times square, herding in the apocalypse. From the look of the footage reeling behind him, he may as well have been. Smoke choked the air as it curled upwards into the sky, rising from a crater that, according to the bulletin at the bottom of the screen, was once the city of Sapporo

"They didn't pick it up till it hit the atmosphere; god knows how they missed it."

"What… what is it!?"

"They though it was just meteor but diagnostics picked up something and we ran it through the MAGI. It's code type blue."

"Meaning?" Old alarm bells were ringing within the depths of Asuka's memory, shaking of the gathered dust as they peeled shrilly.

"They're back. It's an Angel."

It was a good thing the girl was sitting down when the bombshell dropped. She probably would have hit the sofa with enough force to slip a disc.

AN- I did put this up yesterday but then realised I did an ABISMLE job of proof reading it. Here's the ever so slightly more coherent version.

From here on in, I swear to god there will be no more world-setting so prepare yourself for half baked plot, sentences that run on forever, leaning on commas like crutches and other such dodgy metaphors.


	4. Trials by Fire

Chapter 3: Trials by fire

The sun set course for the horizon, skimming over the tree tops that made up the forests beyond the outskirts of Tokyo-3. A hue of pink softly descended upon the carpet of flora, touching up the green as the orb in the sky sank further and further down, all the while in the throws of its own colourful metamorphosis. Yellow melted into orange which in turn finally yielded to furious scarlet, setting the towering clouds ablaze in a fiery spectrum. In short, it was one of those Kodak moments that would make even the most ardent property developer come to a grinding halt in their tracks and take a moment to appreciate the natural world…

Well, that was if you turned a blind eye to the colossal human edifice sprawled across the ground, lying amid the twisted, snapped carcasses of the trees that did diddly-squat to break its tumble.

"GAAAAAAHHH!"

Deep within the bowls of this oh so very out of place beast, a fifteen year-old boy fell back into his sleek, metal throne, still reeling from the blow that had sent both him and the angular, yellow monstrosity he was supposedly piloting flying. Gritting his teeth, he grappled for the controls, willing the mechanical cyclops to its feet. Before he even had a chance to plant his hands however, a tremor tore through the ground, rendering the terra un- firma and a hulking form blotted out the sinking sun as it landed atop him. The pilot of Unit 16 found his field of view suddenly obscured by something that vaguely resembled a head (asides from the fact it was seventy percent neck, probably fifty- foot wide and looked like the tragic result of trying to farm crystals on one's face, rendering it nothing more than a mess of angles) staring down at him, it's beady little black eyes boring hungrily into him.

"GET OFF ME!" He yammered from the depths of the plug, throwing up his arms in a pathetic attempt to deter the thing straddling Unit 16.

Needless to say, the angel was not impressed by his efforts.

The vertical crack running down the centre of its head exploded, yawning open to reveal a gaping chasm. A roar detonated from the depths of it, forcing the boy to ram his hands to the side of his head as the torrent of noise rattled about the plug, filling ever inch of it, even invading the confines of his skull. Through squinted eyes, the pilot was vaguely aware of that gaping, black hole zooming towards him, stretching wider and wider.

'_Oh god.' _Synapses fired off the final thought. _'It's going to eat me.'_

Except that it never got the chance to sink its teeth into the head of Unit 16 and chow down on the Evangelion. A bolt of grey and black hurtled into the side of the angel, knocking it clean off him and sending it tumbling in a mess of straggly limbs. For a moment, it was all the boy could do but stare up at the over-head canvas of ever deepening blue dotted with clouds he'd been so sure he'd never see again. He eventually remembered to breath… and the grim task at hand.

"Idoru!" He called the name as he scrambling to his feet, gathering his bearing. Ah, there she was… or rather, there was Unit 14. The long faced Evangelion was currently trying to wrestled the balking giant into a headlock, though the mass of sinuses didn't seem to be having much of that as its long arms thrashing like branches caught in a tempest. The boy silently bellowed a mental command, deploying the progressive knife from his Evangelion's tall shoulder blade. He turned his gaze to the display panel offering him a view of 14's pilot, her eye lids and lips tightening as she battled to keep a hold of their thrashing quarry.

"Hold on to it!"

"Trying to." Came the thin response but he was already off, pounding towards the battling titans, knife clutched tightly in his fist.

And that was when things went skating downhill.

Idoru bit into her lip as her dark, straggly hair saturated with LCL dripping into her eyes as 14's arm's locked around the thing's neck. The angle stopped its writhing, perfectly still save for its arms. The girl saw them stretch and bend; only it was happening in all the wrong places… and it didn't seem to be stopping. Any bones underneath the angel's taught flesh (interrupted by the occasional crystalline eruption) may as well have been liquid from the way the limbs snaked through the air towards the Evangelion, wrapping round it with all the gentleness of a seventy stone python. Suddenly, she was the one in an impossible grip that wound round her so tight that the LCL rushed out of her lungs to the sound of Unit 14's outer bindings whining under all that pressure. The girl gasped, choking on nothing as she tried to force herself to inhale and overcome those bands of iron that had somehow bounded themselves around her chest, vaguely aware of the fact her Evangelion's feet had left the ground.

And then she was flying.

Unit 16 didn't get a chance to duck as its grey sibling collided into it, knocking it clean off its feet as the angel tossed the machine at it as if it were nothing more cumbersome than a rag doll. The two hit the ground, tearing yet more trees asunder. The boy shook his head, only to find any clarity blown away by the voice that thundered through the plug.

"You two, you've got less than a minuet of internal battery life remaining!"

"Crapcrapcrap" Hector, the pilot of the floored Unit 16 rattled. If it weren't for the liquid surroundings, he would have been all too aware of the sweat beading his dark brow. "We need more t-" but that was as far as the American got as the long, twisting arm of the angel found the pair, snapping round them, binding the two evangelion together in the blink of an eye. Gravity gave way as the target hoisted the two up into the air. Hector could feel Unit 14 buck and writhe next to him like an epileptic in the clutches of a frantic fit, but Idoru's efforts were all to no avail. The angel's one handed grip was like a rusted vice.

And that, of course, left the other hand unaccounted for. The boy looked up in time to see their captor pull its bulking shoulder back, reeling in the free, limp appendage in like a whip. It cracked, splitting the air itself as the Angel snapped the tendril at them. In less than a half a second, it would hit home, slicing through the reinforced outer casing like a super heated blade through the proverbial, ever suffering butter-

"That's it. End the simulation."

Hector opened his eyes, slowly ironing out his scrunched up features. The arching whip-arm had frozen as if the ticking seconds keeping this world moving had come to a stuttering halt, locking it forever in place. The tip was a bear few millimetres from his face.

Almost as soon as he'd registered it, it was gone as the angel and the rest of the world around him simply disintegrated. Trees, earth and sky all peeled away to reveal a deep, blank metallic chamber. The boy finally let go of the breath he'd been holding all pent up in the depths of his chest, sinking back into the seat.

Fifty meters away, Maya Ibuki unwittingly echoed the boy's actions and sat back from the control panel.

"Well," The words came slowly she plundered her vocabulary for a fitting way to describe the spectacle everyone in the control dock had jut witnessed. "That could have gone worse."

"Really?" Misato asked, armed tightly folded over one another. "Unless one of them accidentally managed to activate their self destruction sequence, I'm having trouble thinking how they could top that." The woman didn't get a chance to let her imagination cook up any more nightmare sinareos for she just happened to catch sight of the numbers emblazed across the face of her watch. For the nth time in her life, it dawned on Misato that she was late for something.

"Damn, I was meant to be somewhere else ten minuets ago." The Major groaned. "I gotta run… Asuka?" She turned to the girl in question. The red-head was frozen in place, still goggling at the monitors they'd all watched the relay of Hector and Idoru's 'performance' from.

"Yeah?" she responded in a voice that seemed to waft in from several hundred miles away.

"You and Rei don't mind debriefing them, right?" The woman already had one foot out the door and was scrabbling into her coat before Asuka's brain had even begun to formulate a protest. "Thanks, I owe you guys one!"

And with that, she was gone.

8 8

With shoulders bent like a half shut knife and her LCL sodden hair plastered all over her face, Hector had to admit that his co-pilot was looking even more morose than usual.

"We screwed up. Again." Idoru stated as flatly as a month-old opened bottle of coke.

"I know."

"We shouldn't have. We've run that simulation hundreds of time before."

Hector gritted his teeth as they wondered towards the steel catacomb's exit under the towering, eyeless gaze of the two simulation bodies, suspended above them by all manners of wires and rigging. They hung there motionless, arms limp. Every time he looked at them, Hector's memory would rustle up images of carcasses dangling from hooks in the depths of frosty meat locker.

It gave him the creeps.

Before the boy could give himself a terminal case of the heebie-jeebies, he pushed the mental pictures aside, training his attention on Idoru's words. The girl was of course one hundred percent vindicated; they'd been thrown into that particular battle more times than he could count. They should have known their virtual enemy well enough by now to vanquish it blindfolded.

"I know, I know. And we got our asses handed to us on a platter…" There was a pause, the only sound filling the high room was the soggy slap of the soles of their plug suits on the floor. "You know, you don't need to do this."

"Do what?" The girl's eyes slunk onto him.

"Beat us up about it. Major's going to do a good enough job… of… it…" His words ground to a halt. "Aww fffffffffigs."

"What?" Idoru's head snapped up as Hector stopped in his tracks. She looked at the boy but he yielded no answers, utterly transfixed upon something in the distance. The girl let her gaze hitch a lift on the trail his pupils were cutting through the air, following them to whatever it was that was causing his expression to curdle. She too saw the sight that was causing that look of abject horror. The girl was vaguely aware of the beat her heart missed as she too froze up like a sever crushed under the weight of one too many running programs.

It was the second child and from the way she was stomping towards them, Idoru hazarded a guess that they were not her two favourite people right now.

"How!?" the rant kicked off while she was still a good several meters away from the pilots. "HOW!?" Clearly she was far too pissed off to form anything more coherent than single words.

"Uh, how what, Miss Soryu?" Hector finally managed as the older girl came to a stop less than a foot in front of the quailing duo.

"I think the second child is unable to comprehend your inability to defeat the angel." The soft voice came from the side of the spitting red-head, barely audible over the sound of Asuka's grinding teeth. Hector had been so transfixed by the fiery German storming towards them like a bolt of white-hot lightning that Ayanami may as well have popped out of the blue at the side of the fuming pilot of Unit 02.

"Damn straight I can't!" Asuka finally managed to garble. "How could you two screw that up _so_ badly?! From up there it looked like you two idiots didn't have the faintest clue what you were doing. You've been at this for what? Like five months now? But still you go and make a bunch of rookie mistakes like jettison your battery packs at the first sign of danger which, given the setting is completely STUPID since there's no other way to charge up your power supplies; You two are meant to be fighting that thing in the _middle of nowhere_!" The red-head stilled her yammering jaw, taking a moment to re fill her depleted lungs. "But that didn't matter, did it? No, you two were so busy tripping over yourselves that the target would have killed you before your power ran out anyway. GOD!" Asuka clutched her temples, her voice echoing through the chamber, bouncing of the walls. "You make me embarrassed to call myself an Evangelion pilot. We didn't even have the packs when it was just the three of us… but then we didn't need _half an hour_ to bring down an angel. We'd crush those bastards in half the time it took that thing to kick your asses!"

Fortunately, the girl needed to breathe again. She spun away, fists tightly knotted least their thirsting for something to wallop became to strong to resist. Rei on the other hand merely eyed them from behind her pallid bangs, those twin, red orbs boring into them. Hector found himself silently whishing that it was Misato grilling them after all. At least she was to the point and didn't do this whole bad cop/ psycho cop routine.

"M'am?" a voice broke the ringing silence. Idoru wrung her fingers together, her gaze hardly lifting from the floor. She didn't need to look at the two older women to feel their pupils train themselves on to her; it was like being doused with liquid nitrogen moments before being incinerated in the fallout from a volcano. "The battery packs… they're cumbersome… they restrict movement. I thought we'd perform better if we ditched them rather than let the target get the upper hand. That was my mistake. I'm sorry."

There was a noiseless beat, and then:

"Well that's juuuuuust great, Kirima!" Asuka sounded off, hands planted firmly on her hips. "Why don't you just run off and commit seppuku now while I give myself a migraine wondering why the Americans bothered to send us such a useless excuse for a pilot?" The second child rounded on Hector, nose wrinkled as he was nothing more than a rather unsavoury surprise the dog had left her on the carpet. "A diplomatic gesture, huh? The U.S may as well have dropped an N2 mine on us for all the use you are."

"Uhhh..." He'd been determined to defend himself from the inferno rather than mercilessly throw himself on the blade a la the dark haired seventh child next to him but, as her blue eyes lasered into him, he found the words shrivelling up on his tongue, impotent and useless. "We're not used to running that mission with only the two of us. Normally Suzuhara or-"

"Neither of them are here." Ayanami spoke up. Sure, her words lacked the volume or furore of her German counterpart but they derailed his bumbling excuse just as effectively. "And they may not be here when we need you. Tell me, what will you do when you find yourself in that position?"

"You two are just lucky that there hasn't been another angel since the eighteenth." Asuka spat, arms locked in a fold. "And Rei here managed to take that down all by herself; Clearly, it can't be that hard. It certainly should take two of you at the most."

"…"

The second child's ears pricked up.

"What was that, Thaler?"

Hector bit his tongue but it was all too late. The words had escaped his mouth and nowhere nearly as inaudible as intended.

"Nothing, m'aam!"

"He said he would like to see you try." Rei Ayanami echoed, relaying the words for all to here. The ninth child had enough time to quietly ask god for a small favour and let the ceiling collapse upon him before Asuka's fingers had found his ear, the nails sinking into the thin flesh as she yanked him towards her.

"You've got some nerve, you little-"

"I'm sure he didn't mean it like that." Asuka paused, her prowling gaze latching onto a twitching Idoru. Hector winced as the German stilled her twisting fingers, prolonging the departure of his ear from the side of his head. The pilot had chosen a hell of a time to grow a spine and it seemed Idoru was aware of this sad fact too as she found herself face to face with Asuka Soryu Langley's snarling visage. "I- I- what I mean is that I'd love to see you try. You are meant to be the best pilot at NERV after all..."

She tried to smile but the expression just wouldn't stick as she failed to hold eye contact. Some part of her brain wondered distantly if the smouldering red-head was going to be the last sight to grace her vision in all fifteen years of her short life.

Asuka snorted.

"What a load of bullshit."

"I-I didn't mean it like th-"

"Supposed to be the best pilot in NERV?" Idoru cringed, trying her best to sink into the floor. Despite having the physic of a toothpick, she still proved to be a tad too solid to pull off that feat. "Kiriam, I **am **the best pilot this planet's ever seen… and you know what, I'll prove it to you!"

Hector and the seventh child merely exchanged buffaloed glances as the German spun round to face the control room, cupping her hands round her mouth.

"HEY, DOC!"

Maya Ibuki felt a tic dart across her face as she looked up from the reels of information collected from the test she'd been happily analysing and organising. With a sigh, she reached for the switch that would fire up her end of the intercom.

"Yes, Asuka?"

"Upload the profile for Unit 02 and run the stimulation again. I want to show these rookies how it's really done."

Maya rolled her eyes as the tiny figure in the distance planted a fist in her other palm, grinning wryly. Oh well, at least it would stop her from sending the ninth and seventh to the infirmary. Well, any time soon at least.

A/N: hmm, OC's. I'm wary of these two since we all know how what wonderful balls of complexity the cast of NGE tend to be. Hit me with a flame the moment any of them stop being convincing… that is if they ever start. A happy new year to the lot of you.


	5. In which matters are discussed

Chapter 4: In Which Matters are Discussed

"C'mon… c'mon…" Misato watched the numbers tick by above the elevator door, her fingers rapping out an impatient melody against her arm. The metal cubical seemed to be taking its sweet time descending the shaft, dragging out the vertical journey for all it was worth.

Relativity can be such a bitch at times.

At long last an electronic ping singled their arrival and the woman sprang through the doors the second the sliding panels were far enough apart to allow her to sail through without loosing a shoulder. On the bright side, at least she hadn't got lost. It had only taken three years of working at this labyrinth of escalators and identical passageways for her to finally get her head around the mind-boggling layout of the Geo-Front… well, almost.

With a deep intake of breath, Misato Katsuragi entered the commander's chamber.

"I'm sorry Commander; the simulator run took longer than expected. I got here as soon as I could."

Fuyutsuki cast a glance over his shoulder as the apology intruded into whatever state of meditation he'd gone and lost himself in. The aged man turned around, hands still clasped behind his back.

"Having been here for so long, I've had to come to accept certain things, your tardiness being one of them." He smiled, the lofting corners of his mouth creasing. "Though I will never be able to understand how an expert tactician such as you is on such bad terms with their watch. At ease, Major."

Misato let her taunt posture go slack. She doubted that elsewhere, a certain two pilots were getting off the hook quite so easily.

888

Coloured lines danced a messy dance of swoops and sharp turns over the face of the basket ball court, marking out the parameters of all the different games it hosted. Unfortunately, there was no one around to take advantage of the bounty of options asides from one, soul figure but he seemed lost in a game of his own conception. Lazily, he dribbled the ball across the court, weaving this way and that as he dodged opponents that were nothing more than figments of his imagination. It was probably a good thing that they were no more substantial than the thin air since his jerking, awkward gait would have marked him out as a ripe and tasty target for the hypothetical opposition.

"I though I'd find you here." His hand missed the ball as a familiar voice tapped at his concentration, breaking the rhythm of body and mind. The dark haired boy let it go, watching it roll off in a break for freedom.

"That predictable, huh?" he asked, not bothering to turn round. He knew well enough who it was hovering over his shoulder.

"You weren't home. I figured you'd be here blowing off some steam."

"Yeah, well looks like you was right as usual." Toji muttered, stalking off after the rouge ball.

"Hey, let me get that." Before his lips could even twitch with objection, something had streaked past him, scooping up the basket ball. The girl trotted back over, holding the lurid, neon orb out for Toji. There were no thankyous for her efforts however. It remained firmly in her outstretched hands as a tempest of a scowl clouding over the boy's brows.

"I'm not some invalid, Hikari." He snapped tersely. "I could have got that myself ya know! I don't see you running round after Asuka, offering to pick everything thing up for her and open doors and all that!"

Hikari's arms fell to her side, a storm brewing on her own face.

"Yeah, well maybe that's because I've never loved Asuka. God, I was just trying to help! You can be such a jerk sometimes, you know?"

"Yeah?" He rumbled closer. "Well maybe that's because I'm pissed off right now. Really, really pissed off." And with that, the boy snatched the ball from Hikari's dormant, unsuspecting hands and bounded off with it in his own lopsided fashion. The girl let him go, watching him from under the cover of a frown. It soon past though, and within seconds she found her features thawing out.

She should have expected this.

Toji had been in a foul mood ever since Kaori had told him that she was off to China on NERV business with Aida riding shot gun. Something as simple as fetching the ball that he was now pounding for all it was worth into the tarmac had probably been the tiny straw that shattered the camel's spin. Ever since that day they'd put him in the pilot seat of Unit 04, he'd blow up in the face of losing control, be it thanks to all the hindrances that came with that artificial leg of his, his sister, his best friend or even in the case of something as trivial such as a ball.

Hikari sighed. Maybe coming down here wasn't such a hot idea. When she'd told Asuka where she was going, the red-head had rolled her eyes so far back in her head that she'd feared they'd jam in their sockets. The German had told her to just let the dumb ape bang his chest and sulk, but having gone out with him for the best part of two years, Hikari liked to think she knew Toji better than that. If he didn't deal with it, he'd probably stew out here all night.

888

"So, what's this about then? The China operation?"

"Partly, yes." Kozo affirmed, slowly pacing around the desk. In all the times she'd been summoned here, Misato wouldn't run out of fingers counting the number of times she'd entered the vast room to find the commander sitting in chair that brooded away at the other side of that heavy, wooden table. Perhaps she wasn't the only one who found it hard to kill off old habits.

"Hmpff," The major snorted. "So we're being sent in to clean up someone else's mess."

"Well, to put I as frankly as possible, Yes. It's all part of this international, united front the U.N.'s trying to push."

"If you ask me, it sounds like an excuse for allowing the production of eva units all around the world when everyone knows we're the only place the angels have ever targeted." Misato flicked her hair like some tetchy horse plagued by a cloud of tenacious flies. "You build them, the inevitable happens and something goes haywire as it always seems to do so you can just ask your neighbours to loan you out their set."

Fuyutsuki smirked, bowing his grey head.

"Be that as it may, NERV just so happens to be the nearest organisation in a position to help. On top of that, we have experience with this kind of thing."

He was right of course. Not many people knew how to deal with giant, unruly robots and that was something that pretty much came in Misato's job description. Still, at least this time she wouldn't have to clamber into a walking reactor that could go nuclear at the drop of a hat.

Thank god for small graces, huh?

"If that's the case, then why wasn't I sent out there with Suzuhara and Aida?"

"In theory, the mission is nothing more than reconnaissance. Any more external interference and the China branch risks looking weak or incompetent."

Misato found her eyebrows arching. "A fifteen year old pilot locked themselves up in their Eva, strolled straight out of the complex and managed to vanish without a trace, which in itself is a miracle when you think how huge these things are. If I was the commander in chief of CORE, I don't think I'd be losing any sleep wondering if people though maybe I just wasn't cut out for the job." The woman shook her head, a laugh trickling from the corners of her grim smile. "Thank god the UN vetoed the use of the S2 engine."

"Yes" Fuyutsuki followed up briskly. "That certainly will make their job easier but still, there's the risk that the rouge unit could… reactivate."

The woman stayed silent. Personally, she though the other, less conservative term described the phenomenon she'd been unfortunate enough to witness one too many times.

Evangelion didn't simply reactivate. They went berserk.

"There is one other thing, Major Katsuragi…" Fuyutsuki began, elevating the major of the host of blood stained memories that had started tapping at her shoulder.

888

"Hey, I'm sorry about losing it with you earlier."

He didn't look at her as he offered up his apology, choosing to continue staring up at the evening sky from where he lay on the bank of grass just beyond the court.

"That's ok. You feel any better now?"

Toji's eyes remained lost in the darkening sky, his gaze fluttering about the heavens like some celestial kite.

"I'll take that as a no then." The voice beside him commented in that know-it-all way it tended to. "You're still angry with them, aren't you?"

"It's just…" Whatever strength was bottled away in his now dormant muscles certainly hadn't been channelled to the swarthy teen's voice box. The sentence was practically keeling over before it had even begun.

"It's just what?" Hikari probed.

"Those things. The Evangelion. They never do no good."

"What are you talking about? If it weren't for them, the angels would have destroyed us."

"Yeah? Well what makes you think the Evas didn't get there first?"

Hikari found her brows furrowing. She propped herself up on her elbows. This was surprisingly cryptic for Suzuhara.

"What do you mean?" She asked, his philosophy eluding her.

"I don't mean it in a big way, it's not that they've ever tried to turn us extinct or something, but…" The skin around the corners of his eyes tensed up. "But look at how much damage they've done. My leg's gone, Asuka could give the bionic woman a run for her money what with that eye and arm of hers and one of them put my sister in hospital before they even asked her to pilot one of those freaks." He paused, breathing deeply. "Then there's Shinji…"

Hikari hugged her knees and shivered. Maybe it was the heat leeching away as the sun was slowly extinguished by the line of the horizon. Maybe it was the though of that quite boy being made to fight and hurt and feel pain in turn over and over.

"Do… do you reckon that's why he disappeared with everyone one else?"

Toji sighed.

"I wouldn't doubt it. I just hope they all got to go somewhere nice."

888

"What do you mean you're steeping down!?" Misato's voice cut the air so sharply that the Commander found himself wincing. Resolving to check the status of his ear drum later his battered ear drum, Fuyutsuki just smiled but he couldn't but help notice the bitter aftertaste it left in his mouth.

"I'm an old man, Major, a dinosaur in this new age. The powers that be want someone more innovative at the head of NERV, not an unfair demand considering how fast things are now progressing… and besides, I'm tiered of all this. All I ever wanted since Third Impact was to wash my hands of this mess." He paused. This was doing little to win over the woman sulking on the other side of the desk.

"Innovation, huh?" Misato huffed. "Wasn't that just the kind of thing that led to the Second Impact?"

Something slightly sweeter crept into the smile hanging from Kozo's lips.

"Maybe I should have let them convince me to leave sooner. I fear I've infected you with my cynicism, Katsuragi."

A/N: the title probably should have warned you that this particular instalment wasn't going to be jam packed with dynamic fight scenes and break neck action. How thrilling.

By the by, if you have any thoughts on this, please let me know. I'm aware my writing style can be pretty stodgy at times and this is taking waaaaay too long to get off the ground. Funky characterization is another paranoia and I'd love to be able to beat out any chinks as soon as possible.

TTFN!


	6. Enjoy it while it lasts

Chapter 5: Enjoy it while it lasts

"Two minuets and thirty five seconds! Correct me if I'm wrong First child but that's a new record!" Rei continued on staring at the walkways and offices as they slowly tricked by. The crowing of her not so modest travelling companion had no difficulty filling out the pristine metal and glass chasm through which they slowly ascended on the leisurely paced escalator that was in no rush to go anywhere.

"You are right."

Asuka slanted her eyes, a vicious little grin creeping across her lips.

"What, not sore that I beat your time? You were thrashing around with that thing for what? Ten minuets?"

Rei silently wished that the cogs in the escalator would turn a little faster. The Second child was neigh on intolerable when she had a gust of wind in her sails, especially since nothing quite like it spurred her on to partake in a little Rei bating. It was a long, drawn out game the pair played. Any normal person probably would have turned on the red head, nearest blunt object in hand and bludgeoned her to death by now… but then, Rei Ayanami was in no shape or form a normal person.

"Actually it was eleven minuets and thirty-two seconds." Asuka's smile may as well have been injected with unadulterated HGH from the way it flourished. "But I fought the eighteenth Angel in the real world, not some virtual reality simulation."

You could practically hear the tinkle of teeth hitting the animated stairs that bore them as the smirk plummeted of the second child's face.

"Like that makes a difference. It wouldn't have known what hit it if I hadn't been stuck in Germany."

"I would like to think that is true."

"And why's that?" Asuka gave the girl a sideways glace. "Are you hoping that you'll be able to sit on the side lines while I smack the crap out of the next angel when it finally decides to grace us with its presence?" To say Asuka was a little narked off by the fact two years had passed since their other-worldly foe had deigned to raise it's ugly head was a gross understatement. Indeed, it could be filed along such great examples as Archduke Ferdinanz writing off the bullet as nothing more than a flesh wound.

For the record though, of course the big wigs had come to her first about the China mission. Asuka had not only turned down the offer but by the time she'd finally finished laughing, Misato had looked as though she was silently debating whether or not to throw the German into a padded cell. Pah, what an insult to her prowess! She was Asuka Soryu Langley, fabled pilot of the first ever true Evangelion. She wasn't going to risk scratching the paint work of her beloved, crimson behemoth trekking through some god forsaken jungle in the vague hope that she'd trip over some snivelling whelp's unit. And any way, what if an angel decided to show up while she was away? They seemed to have developed an annoying knack of doing that and there wasn't a chance in hell she'd miss it running errands for a bunch of idiots who couldn't control their own pilots.

"My wish is not only for your sake but for the ninth and seventh as well." Rei decided it would be tactful to exclude Asuka's ego from this list. The pale ghost of a girl figured the second child would not appreciate that particular observation.

"Uggh!" Asuka groaned. It was a disturbingly genuine sound, curdled straight from the pit of her stomach. "Don't remind me. How can they be so utterly useless? Well, Kirima tries but that American brat's a waste of space. Hell, First Child, I've seen you get more enthusiastic about the slop they serve in the canteen than he ever has when he's been told to suit up." And with that, Asuka stomped off the escalator. Rei followed suit, albeit in a far more collected manner. The girl silently noted that if her fellow pilot's chides ever managed to crack her neigh on impenetrable fortress of tolerance, all she need do was bring up the subject of Hector Thaler. The result was always spectacular; Even from several paces behind, you could practically hear the Second Child's blood bubbling as it boiled away in her veins.

8 8 8

On the topic of motley pair, Kiriam and Thaler had found that they had more in common that a mutual relief that the Second child had not gone and mounted their heads on her wall to commiserate the fact she'd utterly quashed them in a two pronged attack of words and deeds. Knee capped ego's asides, the Ninth of Seventh discovered they both had precious little to whittle out the remnants of the long summers eve that stretched out before them like some great, languid feline.

"Idoru?" The lanky girl had barley walked five meters from the point where they'd said their awkward goodbyes. She glanced over her shoulder. The boy hadn't budged an inch; He was still rooted to the spot treading water. "Isn't your dad's place this way?"

"Yes… but I wasn't planning on going there yet."

"For real?" He trotted up beside her. "So what are you doing now?"

"Nothing interesting." She mumbled quickly, delivering the line as if someone had just become fixated by some mortifyingly personal possession and had started bugging the girl as to what it was. "just… you know… wondering about."

"Sounds cool. Hey, I was thinking, we don't really hang out that much which is kinda weird when you think about it. There aren't many that many people who I've fought giant monsters from Planet X with, you know?"

Idoru shifted. There was something underlying all those words, something hungry and eager.

"I guess… so does this mean you want to be friends with Pilot Langley?"

"Well… no." HA. That girl would bitch and whine about having to share her oxygen with Hector. They most certainly wouldn't be swapping friendship bracelets and having sleep overs any time in the foreseeable future. Hell, he'd probably have more luck getting chummy with a rabid hyena.

8 8 8

8 8 8

Without angels throwing themselves left, right and centre at Tokyo-3, it would be fair to say that things had become a little less hectic. Indeed, Aoba Shigeru could almost fool himself into believing he had a normal nine to five (more like eight to seven) job that had nothing at all to do with defending the earth from a host of the most unconventional angels you'd ever laid eyes on. For once, he could pretend that he was a normal guy clocking off after another fantastically ordinary and mundane day and on his way to an ordinary and mundane drink at the nearest bar with his equally normal and mundane friends.

Fate, however, seemed to have mislaid her celestial spanner in the works.

"What do you mean you're not coming?"

"I'm sorry Aoba, but I just can't make it."

"Why not?!" the floppy haired member of the trio whined as Mokato did his best to let the inquisition wash over him. "Don't be lame. I even managed to cokes Ibuki out from her computer a couple of hours early."

"Now there's a miracle in itself." The woman absently added, casting a glance over her shoulder lest the mountain of work she'd blown off was thundering down the hallway after her. Mokato just shook his head.

"Look, I want to come. I really do. There's nothing that I would love to do more than pickle my liver with you all tonight, but something came up and I just can't get out of it."

"And what's that? Unless it's it something to do with stopping the world from ending itself, it's not going to fly."

Hyuga sighed.

"I said I'd give the Major a lift home."

"That's it?" Maya came very close to stopping in her tracks; the anticlimax in itself was almost shocking. Aoba's face didn't seem to know what to do with itself. The angry 'o' his mouth had worked itself into started to flag as the sides until it had morphed into a sly little grin that even the Cheshire Cat would take his hat off to.

"Oh… I get what's going on here."

Mokato huffed, the tapping of his feet on the linoleum picking up the tempo. He knew where this was going.

"Really? I though you didn't get anything unless it had strings and tuning pegs."

"Man's trying to sweeten up Katsuragi!" the long haired technician blasted triumphantly. "You recon this is going to be your lucky night or something?"

"Oh leave him alone, Aoba." Ibuki rolled her eyes. In those few, spare moments when she could sit back and muse about things other than sync ratios and the MAGI's CPU, the young woman would often wonder how long it would take such conversations to devolve into a full blown scrap without her there playing peace keeper. "I'm sure Mokato here's just trying to do the chivalrous thing and help her out. I bet he'd be more than happy to give you a lift if your car had been totaled by those COH thugs."

"Nah. He hasn't been drooling me for god knows how long and let's face it, I'm nowhere near as much as a fox as the Major."

Mokato dragged his hand down his face oh so slowly. This was going to be a very long walk to the car park indeed.

8 8 8

8 8 8

"Aida… What have you got yourself into?" The words creaked from the boy's mouth as he looked up at the reflection staring back at him from the depths of the mirror. No matter how many questions he posted it and how much it may want to give him the answers, the second Aida trapped behind the glass was helpless to do anything unless its original showed it how.

Right now, Aida must have been doing a wonderful job of instructing it in the fine art of how to look like shit. All the colour had drained from his doppelganger's skin, resulting in a complexion that was somewhat akin to that of a putty rubber. Funny. If he could jump in a time machine and pay his fourteen year old self a visit (without, of course, causing some sort of time paradox that would result in the universe wiping itself out) and off load how awful he was feeling about all this, the Aida of the past would probably be too busy bouncing off the walls to listen to a word he imparted.

Well, he'd grown up a bit in the last three years. He'd been growing up ever since the day he went to the hospital and saw Toji lying there. That was one image he just couldn't purge. The kid had looked so small… and that just wasn't down to the fact the length of his legs were now tragically miss-matched.

"Hey Aida? You in there?" There was a click as the latch turned and the door swung open. A head popped through the gap, peering round the room with its bright eyes. Good thing they were so observant; they clocked the pillow flying straight at them in time to duck behind the panel.

"Ya big jerk! What was that for!?" The door flew open again, revealing a swarthy, gawky girl with her hand firmly planted on her hips.

"It's for your own good, Kaori! You can't just come barging in when you feel like it!"

"Oh yeah? Why not?"

"Because I'm a guy! What if I'd been doing something crass!?"

"Like what?" She hung in the doorway, the words one, long hot drawl till something ticked in her brain and it dawn on the girl she didn't actually want to know the icky details. "Ewww! Don't you dare answer that question!"

"Fine by me. I'm not going to be held responsible for twisting your fragile, little mind." All that earned Aida was a tongue jabbed in his general direction and a shock wave that rippled through his room as the door slammed shut. The isolation was short lived however as a machine gun knock rattled the still jangly air.

"Master Kensuke! This is the Tenth Child requesting permission to enter the premises… or does sir need more time to pick his nose and eat his toenails?"

Aida laughed. You had to. The only other option was going madder than a certain hat sporting fellow trapped in a never ending tea party.

"Permission granted." The sentence had hardly had a chance to seep through the door before the wooden panel was sent swinging on its hinges (the poor thing was probably close to flying clean off them).

Enter Kaori Suzuhara, pilot of Unit 17 with all the finesse of a wrecking ball in full swing.

"So, what 'cha doing? picking zits?" She piped, noting him hanging over the sink and mirror. It was one of the few features asides from the bed (complete with sheets so scratchy that getting in and out of them would probably cost you a layer or two of skin) in the otherwise Spartan box of a room supplied by CORE that broke the monotonous sea of off white wall paper/carpet. The glamorous life of an Eva pilot, huh?

"Actually I was going over the mission dossier… which is precisely just what you're meant to be doing too."

The girl made a rather un-lady like noise of protest as she skipped in and crashed down on Aida's bed.

"It's sooo boring. Why dose it take them like a whole book to tell us some kid ran off with an Eva and it's our job to bring it back and provide the muscle if it's needed. See, that took me what? Less than twenty words?"

Aida ran a finger up the side of his nose, slotting his glasses into place.

"There are certain formalities, you know. The Evangelion aren't toys for us to screw around with…" Even from behind his messy mop of curls, the older boy could see the girl's face harden.

"I know that." Kensuke gave himself a sharp, mental kick. Of course she did. She lived with a testament to just how serious a business this all was.

It was all fun and games till someone lost an eye

(leg).

, something the freckled young man had learned for himself all those years ago. One of those awkward silences had invited itself along to the little soirée, its fingers locking round Aida's neck and leaving the boy to silently chastise himself as the words choked in his throat. Thankfully, the wound was only superficial. No damage had been done and before long, Kaori's jaw was moving again. She probably couldn't keep it clamped shut for more than a handful of seconds if she tried.

"Why can't they just, you know, point us in the right direction and let us do our stuff."

"Are you nervous?" Her head jerked up, as if someone had yanked a fine thread attached to its crown. She peered at him over her chest.

"No!"

"Really?" Aida hoisted his eyebrows at the bark of a response. "I don't think you just came in here to try and get me to explain the ins and outs of military red tape to you."

The scowl grudgingly softened like warm wax. Finally, the girl sighed the sigh of someone at weekly confession about to go and offload their most heinous of dirty thoughts.

"Well, maybe a little… But I'm not scared or anything like that!" She rushed, end of the sentence ploughing into itself as she garbled out the words. Aida gave her a smile. You couldn't deny she had spunk.

"Of course not."

"It's just I haven't done anything like this before and… and" The spew of words swilled and chundered forth from her mouth like rain water from a broken pipe. "and Toji's so mad we're here, Aida! You should have seen him the night we left. I've never seen anyone so pissed, not even the Major… _or_ Pilot Soryu!" The girl sniffed and nibbled at her lips. "I think he hates us right now."

"You know that's not true." Kensuke perched on the cool bowl of the sink. He'd been friends with the Suzuhara boy for the best part of seven years now and over that long stretch of time, he'd like to think he'd gained some insight into how the burly young man ticked. Toji's love was of the particularly rough and gruff verity, one of the few things asides from the gender and age that differentiated him from the boyish girl fretting away at his bed spread with antsy, twitch fingers. "It's his weird way of letting you know he cares. If you walked out the door without him making a peep… well, then it would be time to worry."

"Did he screw at you too?"

"Are you kidding?" The boy blurted loud enough to make the kid flinch. Aida was still in a mild state of shock over the fact Toji hadn't forced fed him his own teeth when they last crossed paths. "He nearly took my ear of… literally!"

"For real?" Kaori cocked her head at the titbit of information. "What did he say?"

"He said…"

'_I can't believe this!' Aida let his neck go slack and stared at the ground. If it was some attempt to make himself more aerodynamic so the words would slip right over him, it wasn't working. There was the moan of twisting gravel as Toji turned on him, his teeth practically giving off sparks as they gnashed. 'You still don't get it, do you?'_

_Silence. The ground stared right back at the boy offering not a jot of help in peeling him from this sticky situation._

'_Yes I do.'_

'_No you don't. You're the same as you always was. Still think it's so cool now that they're asking you to do something more than just a sync test?'_

_Kesuke's eyes danced off, becoming lost in the labyrinth of tall buildings blotting out the horizon. Why oh why had he broken rule number one? Never EVER discuss Eva or anything even remotely related to NERV with Him. Whenever the taboo reared its ugly head, the boy would whip himself into such a frenzy that you seriously began to wonder if your health insurance covered acts of Toji. There was no point in trying to explain his motives for agreeing to let them sit him in a plug and pilot one of those machines when he was like this._

_Suzuhara spat hard enough to crack the ground beneath his feet._

"_Do me a favour, Kensuke."_

"_What?" He silently hoped that it wouldn't be to stand still long enough to let Toji lay one on him._

"_Keep an eye on Kaori for me out there. If anything happens to her then…" The sentence cut short its ascent, leaving Toji with little to do but bore into his friend with a gaze honed to a searing point. "She gets this even less than you do. I'm not going to lose anything else to those monsters!"_

"He said lots of things." Aida found his jaws locking together. The two chewed the fat for a while longed, but the boy could nary shake the crushing weight baring down on him. Guilt and responsibility made a surprisingly weighty combination.

8 8 8

"I did try and warn you. This place isn't very interesting at all." In an act wonderfully out of character, Idoru broke the silence that had begun to get a little too comfortable in one of the many arches holding up the bridge over head, her wispy words contending with the river's lapping and churning. Thaler looked up from the soda can he'd been teasing with his foot.

"I wouldn't say that. It's… scenic."

"But you hate it, don't you?"

Hector's foot slipped, reducing the can to nothing more than a jagged concertina. He hadn't been lying when he said it was pretty; this late in the day, the setting sun had set the water ablaze, that red tint blooming in the sky dying the tiny waves crimson. Some people out there would find it magnificent.

The boy leaning against the bridge's pillar didn't fall into that category.

"I'm not a water person. Reminds me of the plug"

(_Reminds him of waking up in San Francisco and every one was gone that scared him a lot and he'd been so lonely so lonely the boy looked and looked but there was no one around the city may as well have been wrung dry of people no rumble of engines or blearing of horns no trilling of phones or endless cacophony of voices only the relentless metronome kept by the sea as it beat the bay when he was little he'd gone there to see the sea lions they were there but now they clung to the rocks and it didn't take long for Hector to realise why the water was red blood red acre upon acre of blood red water sloshed before him and he had screamed he screamed and screamed and screamed_)

"Oh. Sorry." The girl's bare toes gripped the rock she was perched on a little tighter. "Don't- don't you like piloting Eva?"

No. No I don't. In fact I hate it. I don't get how you and the others can be so cool about getting into those things. Wanna hear something funny? I get down to the changing rooms half an hour before we have a sync test or simulation run because I know I'm going to have to fight with myself every step of the way to the plug.

Or at least that's what the ninth child would have said if a polyphonic rift hadn't butted its way into the conversation from the depths of his jean pockets.

"Uh… aren't you going to pick it up" Idoru finally asked as the short ditty repeated itself for the third time. The ring tone seemed to have had an amazing effect on the boy, as potent as a pair of dazzling head lights on a deer.

"Pick what up?"

"Y- your phone. It's ringing."

"Oh yeah." His hand flew clumsily to his pocket and fumbled about within the pouch as if it were laced with spider webs. Finally, it resurfaced, a red mobile clutched in its suddenly clammy grip but not for long as the digits tripped over themselves and the tiny machine went cluttering amongst the pebbles.

The seventh child watched the performance drag itself out from where she sat. The phone may as well have been made out of warm butter for all the grabs Hector made for it. By the time he finally got it off the ground, it had fallen silent. Either the poor thing had given out having been buffed back and forth over the stony ground or the whole affair had proved too trying for the patience of who ever it was on the other end of the line.

"Man, I am not with it this afternoon. They'll leave a message though if it's anything important."

Idoru said nothing. The whole thing had been about as natural as glow in the dark genetically modified vegetables but she wasn't going to pry. What little jurisdiction she had into the private thoughts of others had already been spent on other questions.

8 8 8

Clearly, someone up there was being very liberal with the miracles today. Somehow, Mokato had managed to get the car park without either having an aneurism or wringing his fellow lieutenant's neck until Shigeru shut up due to death by asphyxiation.

"Are you ok? You seem kinda tense."

"Who, me?" He asked the woman strapped into the passenger seat. "I'm fine. Cool as a cucumber." Misato didn't look convinced and had good reason not to. Hyuga had serious concern for the state of the teeth lining his aching jaw (it felt like he'd grinded them to the point that they resembled nothing more than fine talcum powder) and his temples were about to blow like a pair of fine fuses. "What about you?"

"Well, let's see…" Misato slung herself back into her seat. "Unit 01 may as well have trod on my car for the mess those idiots made of it, the China operation's a nightmare, the seventh and ninth just bombed _another_ simulation run and to top it all off, the General told me he's stepping down."

"No way!" For a moment, Mokato forgot he was behind the wheel. Fortunately, the other drivers on the road were a little less easily derailed and thus nothing too grievous came from him sailing straight through a red light other that a howl of horns and squeal of brakes.

"What the hell?" Katsuragi craned her neck back to peer at the thick jam of cars spread all over the intersection. "Can't people drive anymore? Where was I? Oh yeah, Fuyutsuki. That floored me."

"You can say that again. Who's taking over?"

"Takashi Yamamura. Haven't heard of him? Me neither. The guy's a ghost; the data base has practically nothing on him."

Mokato stole a sideways glance at the woman next to him. The eyes lingered on her bold profile, hindered not the least by the vision of her furiously gnashing on a nail.

"You don't like the sound of that, do you?"

"I was just hoping we could cut all this conspiracy crap." She sighed hard enough to make the big bad wolf look like an asthmatic as she buried the back of her head in the rest. "Oh well, at least I've still got you, right?"

"Right!" The letters were a jumble as they tumbled from his mouth. If he hadn't have needed both feet on the pedals, he would have given himself a sharp kick there and then. Way too eager, Mokato. You're not some twelve year old tossed asunder on a sea of frothing hormones… but maybe… just maybe on this positive note, she'd accepted an offer to make a detour to the nearest public house. His chances were good anyway since anyone who'd witnessed Misato in action at any of NERV's more social gatherings could guess that the Major liked her tipple…. Even if they had the observation skills of a blind mollusk.

"Major... would you-"

"BREAK!" the klaxon bellow practically blew out the windows as Misato did her best to dig her nails into the dashboard. Hyuga whipped his head round in time to see a pair of red break lights sailing towards him. Expletives rattled about the car as the driver slammed his foot on the peddle.

"Oh god… I didn't see that. Are you okay?!" Fortunately, neither Major or machine had been hurt in the incident.

"It'll take more than some idiot stopping in the middle of the road to rattle me." A look that suggested Mokato was in the grips of a vicious blaze of heart burn crossed the man's face for all of two seconds until it clicked that the abuse was being hurled at the vehicle in front. "What's going on?"

"I… I don't know." An arpeggio of horns and voices swept into the car as the lieutenant rolled his window down and poked his head out. "Jesus… We're not going anywhere soon."

"What!? Why not?!"

"See for yourself."

Seeing as that was as informative as a picture book for the blind, Katsuragi clambered out of the car. Hyuga certainly did have his facts straight; A blockade of stationary cars was the oh so welcomed sight that greeted her eyes. But wait… what was that at the head of the jam, plugging the road like a wet, swollen cork?

"Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!" The woman slammed the unfortunate door that had the bad luck to be the closets thing to hand at that moment and span on her heels least she had to look at the offensive sight a moment longer and blow _all_ her fuses. "Those bastards! Don't they have anything better to do than piss me off." Mokato hurried off after the woman, partly through concern, partly for the fear that something very unpleasant might happen to anything that so much looked at her funny.

Those bastards in question were a group of men and women who had taken up shop in the middle of the road kitted out with all manner of picket signs and loud speakers that carried their message over the warble of angry car horns. They were members of the Church of Humanity, aka the COH.

It had all begun following the aftermath of the eighteenth angel tearing up Sapporo when a news presenter by the name of Shinpei Kuroda had suddenly gone off script and flatly announced that Judgment Day was on its way. Before the producers realized that their anchorman was quite possibly in the throws of a televised mental breakdown, Kuroda announced that suffering at the hands, claws, laser beams or whatever bizarre weapon the next angel came bearing down on them with like some fiery sword was the price for man's hubris. Prior to the plug being pulled, the man cited those fools at NERV and other organizations of that ilk as the arch criminals, claiming to have heard all this and other fantastic tit-bits of truths from the lips of one of man kind's heavenly assailants itself. What ever these were, Kuroda was forced to keep to himself for his program was rudely interrupted by a screen informing the viewers that the channel was suffering from technical difficulties.

Kuroda never presented another news item ever again.

That wasn't to say that he slipped into a mist of anonymity. If anything, he became an over night sensation, hailed as a prophet by some and written off as a particularly nutty fruit case by others. None the less, certain factions of society seemed to thrive on this kind of stuff and before long, followers had started displaying their animosity towards NERV and their idols of ego and evil by staging protests and battering Misato Katsuragi's beloved automobile into a sad lump of metal.

Needless to say, they weren't the Major's favorite group of people.

8 8 8

It was dark by the time Idoru Kirima finally uprooted herself from the rock under the bridge and started weaving her way home. Hector had said his farewells ages ago but the girl was more than happy to linger alone for a while longer, after all, that had been her plan from the start.

Unlike her fellow pilot, she liked it out here. She liked the water and the way it gently heaved and tossed like the chest of some vast, colossal entity. Idoru could quite happily spend hours staring at it, fixated by its entrancing dance and wonder. She wondered about many things, though mostly her thoughts were absorbed by that grey, shaggy leviathan. In reality, it was nothing more than a mind boggling number of water molecules that could easily exist on their own but were desperate to cling together. And why shouldn't they? Together, they made something as all encompassing as the oceans ringing the continents.

Idoru doubted the seas were ever lonely.

a/n- ugh, long chapter (where, once again, BUGGER ALL happens). Reckon it should be broken up?

Right, enough with trying to establish characters and what not. This show will be getting on the road as of next chapter


	7. Toy soldiers

Chapter 6: Toy Soldiers

"Wow." Asuka drawled. The word was a garbled murmur thanks to the fact the supporting palm that slid up her face, smudging her lips in to grotesque, squishy shapes. As unglamorous as it was, the homemade head rest was a bear necessity. Without it, there was a serious danger than her slack features would dribble right off her face into a sloppy mess on the work station. "This is almost as fun as watching Ayanami watch paint dry."

Ayanami, looming behind Asuka like a silent marble pillar made no sounds of protest. Unfortunately, not everyone was as happy to let the comment slide.

"Oh cram it." The major snapped from the other end of the terminal where she, the trio of technicians and Dr. Ibuki huddled round their monitors. "If you want to play a more hands on role in the tactical side of things then you're going to have to get some experience in looking at an operation from outside Unit 02. It can't all be emergencies and explosions, you know."

"And thank god for that." Mokato muttered quietly. His brief prayer was, however, interrupted by a snort from Aoba's corner of the network of terminals

"She says that," The technician began, dryer than the Sahara mid- drought. "But you know as well as I that things have a real good track record for going f.u.b.a.r. around here." Behind the high, sleek back of his chair, he couldn't see Maya roll her eyes. Although the pessimist within was nodding its head with enough vigour to induce brain damage, this was not the time and place for Aoba's cynicism. If anything, he was going to freak out Ichi Goto, her shy replacement who was currently sat in her old seat, gawking with dinner plate eyes at the long haired lieutenant.

"Would it kill you to just _try_ and be a little more positive about this?" The newly instated doctor sighed.

"Besides," Misato chimed in. "Commander Fy- I mean Commander Yamamura's could arrive any minuet. He's not going to be brimming with confidence if he comes in here and finds us taking bets on which Unit's going to blow up first."

"Point taken." Aoba sunk back into his chair, content with watching the visual links from Units 17 and 15 up on the main screen. Despite the united front formed against his special brand of humour, there was a wide smirk drawn across his face. "And you're right, Doctor. On the bright side, if anything goes wrong, it'll go off in China's lap and not ours for once."

Asuka let her head lolled back on a neck that had lost the will to live as much as every other iota of her being. Neither the banter nor the mildly quizzical look an upside down Rei was giving her were doing anything to thrill the girl. She felt it was high time to remind the world of this.

"BOOOORRRIIIINNNGG."

8 8 8

"BOOOORRRIIIINNNGG."

"Yeah, Koari, I know." Aida had to grit his teeth least anything less PG-13 friendly slipped off his tongue. "And if I hadn't worked it out for myself, I _think _I would have got the hint after you said that for the tenth time." Under normal circumstances, Kensuke had all the time in the world for the younger Suzuhara… but then, sitting in oxygenated gooey centre of a giant mecha which was currently being towed across the skies by a carrier plan kinda stretched the bounds of normality. That aside, in the span of time since they'd taken off from CORE head quarters, the girl had revealed that she may as well have the attention span of a gnat struck down with a major case of ADHD.

Hurt shot across the digital image of the girl's face peering up at him from the HUD. It was only there for a moment before her lower lip slipped out and she gave him an evil, but still, it was enough to make him regret raising his voice. Kaori was just a kid. Just a kid in a giant war machine who might have to tear apart another kid in exactly the same position by the time this was all over.

Shit. Shit, shit, _shit._

Aida shut his eyes and tried not to think about all the worst case scenarios that swum around his head like sharks, drawn by that stench of that ghastly, quaking fear that must be stinking out the plug more than the LCL. He retreated from them, but found himself wading into memories… memories of two blood soaked Evangelion

(_two little boys)_

Ripping each other to shreds.

"Yo, are you okay?" Aida lowered his hand from his face. Kaori stared right back at him, a hint of worry spicing up her expression. "You look like you're going to puke which will be really gross 'cause it'll get all mixed up with the LCL."

"I- I'm fine." His voice shook a little. He pretended not to hear it. "It's just…Have I ever told you that I get air sick?" For a long while, Kaori said nothing as her eyes crept over his face, dissecting it like a pair of searchlights cutting through the dark.

"You were fine on the flight to China."

Aida's gaze faltered. She was sharper than her brother. That was another difference he could add to the shot list.

"Yeah, well, you know."

…

"Hey!" The girl suddenly piped up, the alien anxiety flying from her face. "Let's do something to take your mind off it because last thing I wanna to do is watch you chunder. I spy with my little eye something beginning with…. 'T'"

Aida looked out of the plug at the carpet of green sweeping away beneath them as the flew over the never ending forest and felt the bite of shame. He was meant to be the one looking after her, not the other way round.

But that wasn't to say he didn't appreciate the thought.

8 8 8

Even though the meeting had taken place nigh on half a decade ago, Misato Katsuragi could still remember that feeling that had come over her when she first met Gendo Ikari. Like so many of their following engagements, it had taken place in his catacomb of an office, yet despite it's bare and empty appearance that man, that lone man staring over his twisted web of fingers managed to fill every inch of it with something electric. Misato had to blink when his eyes caught hers lest they lance right through her.

The only reason she blinked when sub-commander Fuyutsuki introduced the gathering on the bridge to their new overseer was because she couldn't quite believe her eyes.

Even next to the grey and wrinkled Koyo, Yamamura looked transparent and the only thing he had in common with Ikari was weak eyes that couldn't digest the world around them without the help of glasses. The man was just so…unremarkable.

"At ease, ladies and gentlemen." Said the head between its sloping shoulders. "After all, the lives aren't in our hands today. Anyone care to bring me up to speed?"

As he nodded along to Maya's voice as she reeled off a list of times, coordinates and statistics, a finger to his thin lips, Asuka Soryu Langley found her eyes wondering. This strange new creature already bored her. After all, what kind of dull person would rather listen to the doctor's pointless update than be introduced to a real, live Evangelion pilot… especially when said pilot was the fabled Second Child?

"That's the new Commander? What a joke." She mumbled. "He doesn't look like he could command this place even if Fuyutsuki left post-its all over it for him. What say you, Rei?"

No answer came the loud reply.

"Rei??" Asuka turned to the ghost next to her, only to find the girl's red eyes tracing even Yamamura's tiniest motion. From where she stood, it looked like there may as well nothing in Rei's world asides from her and the commander. Hell, from the way she was going at it, she probably wouldn't take her eyes of the man if Aoba discovered an N2 mine under his desk with only ten seconds left on the count down.

Fortunately, that proved to be an over-exaggeration. A sharp snap of her fingers in the girl's ears proved to do the trick, bringing her swiftly back to reality.

"Did you say something?" She asked in that muted voice of hers

"Uh- yes, but you were so busy gawking at the commander as if he were Keanu Reeves or something that you didn't… wait a minuet." The German's eyes went wide as an ugly thought reared it's head from the crasser section of her brain. "Oh ewww. Please tell me you haven't really got a thing for older men! He looks like he could be your grand-father for crying out loud! Uhg, I'm going to be sick"

"No…" Said Rei from a million miles away, still not taking her eyes off commander Yamamura. "It is nothing like that."

"Really? Could'a fooled me."

"He…" Her crimson eyes narrowed. Finally, she turned to Asuka, mild anxiety tugging at the corners of her mouth. "He unnerves me."

The German gawked. She was about to tell Rei what a class A idiot she was being when a voice rose above the hum of background conversation, stilling it instantly.

"We have contact!"

8 8 8

The impact rattled up Kensuke's legs. If he hadn't been in Unit 15, the impact from the five hundred foot drop would have reduced him to nothing more that gory, red splatter.

What a comforting thought.

"What a rush!" Kaori's voice blasted through the plug as her muddy green unit pulled itself free of the small creator its landing had punched into the earth.

"Uh, yeah." Aida swallowed, trying to dislodge his stomach from his throat. "Look, I hate to be the fun police, but we've only got half an hour to secure the rouge and get it ready to be airlifted back to base so let's just get this over and done with."

"Thirty minutes?" The round headed Eva slung the tangle of harnesses, clips and mooring that CORE had kindly provided over its high shoulder blades. "That's a _tone_ of time. The scanners placed the target in a two mile radius! C'mon, this is going to be a cakewalk." And with that, Unit 17 turned on its colossal heals and marched off into the green.

8 8 8

"Told ya so!" came Kaori's crowing voice over the intercom. Kensuke didn't look up from the gigantic, mechanized fingers filling his view port as he willed them to thread and twist the clips around the rouge's still form. It hadn't been hard to find the machine; whoever had designed it clearly hadn't factored in camouflage for the dormant beast had such a furious red paint job that looking at it was like a giant, neon finger poking you in the eye.

"Just what the hell is a cakewalk anyway?" Aida asked absentmindedly as he beavered away, tightening the fastenings. "You're mixing up your metaphors there."

Everything was fine and dandy. Hell, things were running so smoothly you'd think the celestial cogs were drowning in oil but Aida just couldn't shake that eerie sense of dread that had been hanging over his shoulder. He just wanted to get out of here. Where the hell were the carrier planes? They'd radioed for them what? Twenty minuets ago?

"I'll have you know that there is such thing as a cakewalk. It's this crazy dance they used to-"

But Aida wasn't listening to the secret origins of Kaori's mystery word. He was too busy trying to work out what that snapping noise was. His left cheek exploded as something red blazed across the view finder and suddenly the ground was slamming into his back. Aida just lay there for a moment amongst the crumpled splinters that used to be trees trying to work out what the hell had just happened. A scream ripped through the plug and with it came a horrible, crystal clear clarity.

The nightmare scenario. He'd just woken up in it.

8 8 8

"But how the hell is that even possible!?"

That was a very good question and Maya could only juggle with words as her eyes flitted from the furious Major to the macabre show playing out on the sprawling, virtual screen.

"I-I have no idea. Even with a battery pack, the Unit's been out there for over two days… Nothing should be running except for the life support… and even that would be failing by now." She garbled, eyes now fixed on the rouge as it lurched forwards, tearing the last of the bindings to ribbons. "The stress of prolonged isolation and perceived threat…that- that could have provoked an involuntary reaction."

"It's gone berserk." Yamamura too was fixated, his features oddly still amongst the menagerie of twisted mouths and brows. "That's what you meant to say, isn't it, Doctor."

Yes. That was precisely what she meant to say but she just couldn't bring her self to say it and compound that terrifying truth. Maya had been there, out in the geo front when that terrible thing had possessed Unit 01. She'd seen the transformation from machine to snarling, living hateful beast that tore and ripped and ate. That demon had revelled in the crimson red war paint that doused it as it desecrated the sixteenth angel.

No part of her wanted to say that that was what was out there right now, let lose on the children.

AN: the question of where in the world is Shinji Ikari seems to come up a lot in the reviews. This'll be dealt with in due course. Out of curiosity, does his absence have a huge effect on whether or not you, good reader, will carry on reading this over blown drabble?

holy moly, jose, you ask a lot of questions. They shall all be answered… but just not yet. I'll agree with you on the fact that the premise of this is DELICIOUSLY clichéd. I came up with it years ago and boy, it shows. Super glad to hear you like the execution though!

t t f n


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